Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) held its annual Performance Update November 25, offering Canada’s oil sands producers a chance to reflect on the alliance’s performance, recognizing both successes and improvement opportunities. Expectations of COSIA remain high – the world’s attention is still focused on the oil sands and what’s being done to lessen environmental impacts associated with its development.

Certainly there’s a lot for COSIA’s member companies to be proud of in 2014. While 2013 was a period of setting COSIA’s foundation, this year saw the creation and advancement of several projects.

Technologies shared, projects advanced

To date, over 777 environmental technologies, costing more than $950 million to develop have been shared amongst COSIA members. And with 238 new projects moving forward, of which 68 were submitted in 2014, there’s no shortage of performance to evaluate. A quick look at the year’s results show that COSIA has made progress on several projects, including its GE-partnered SAGD Produced Water Treatment Pilot and its Water Technology Development Centre.

So while a lot has been taking place, member companies are tempering optimism with realistic expectations. Technologies that enable environmental performance improvements take years to develop, test and implement.

As a COSIA member, Suncor is committed to the organization’s success. Of the 238 new projects moving forward under COSIA’s watch, approximately 60 are Suncor-led or supported.

If anything, this past year served proof that the COSIA collaboration works and is accelerating environmental performance in the oil sands.

Oil Sands Question and Response (OSQAR) is a blog created by Suncor Energy to support constructive dialogue about the oil sands. In our weekly posts, we talk about the energy industry, environmental impact, tailings management and reclamation, water management and the social and economic implications of oil sands development.

Our oil sands operations are near Fort McMurray, Alberta, where we recover bitumen from oil sands through mining and in situ operations. The bitumen from both operations is then upgraded to refinery-ready feedstock and diesel fuel. More about the where and the what of the oil sands can be found on our oil sands resource page.